


Dark Water

by paranoids



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 06:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14910201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoids/pseuds/paranoids
Summary: Mike wants to teach El how to swim, but El and water have a dark past.





	Dark Water

The gang thought they had lucked out when they discovered a secluded pond with water just barely suitable for swimming in. El hadn’t been able to join them at the pool, hiding away from the public eye until she could officially start afresh as a high school _fresh_ man.  When Mike brought this news to her attention however, El, for the first time ever, opted out of spending time with her friends in favor of being alone in the cabin.

“You want to _stay here_?” He asked, bewildered.

"Yes.”

“Well, what about another day?”

“No,” she said forcefully. Mike looked taken aback and she immediately felt guilty. “Sorry.” She put her hand out and touched his forearm, resting beside him on the couch.

She hated how disappointed he looked, but he didn’t question her further. “Okay,” he said.

They spent the rest of that afternoon watching a soap opera called _Days of our Lives._

A week passed, the subject never once mentioned.

Until one late morning in July, the heat sweltering, there was a knock on the cabin door. The special knock that only Mike knew. She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face and focused her attention on the locks, unlocking and swinging the door open from her position on the couch.

“El!” Mike greeted the empty space in front of him excitedly. It took him a moment to realize there was no one there, and his eyes surveyed the room to find El sitting on the couch, her face directly in front of the fan, wiping beads of sweat from her neck.

“You couldn’t get up for me?” He asked light-heartedly, closing the door behind him with a smile.

“Too hot,” was El’s response.

Mike nodded. “Well, El, I actually have a solution for that…” El turned her head to see Mike standing in his swim trunks, a big and eager smile displaying practically all of his teeth.

El froze.

Mike sensed her discomfort instantly.

“It’s ok, El… I know you can’t swim,” he said softly, striding to find his place beside her on the couch. “So I was thinking that I could teach you.”

A million fears crept up El’s spine as if they had been lying dormant for a long time, just waiting for their next moment to strike.  She was paralyzed in silence.

“Listen, we don’t have to get any farther in the water than our ankles if you don’t want to,” he assured. Then paused. “well, ok, we probably have to go a little farther than our ankles. But I’ll hold you the whole time, if that’s what you want.”

El, prepared to say no, felt a hand rest on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. She glanced up to find Mike smiling at her lovingly, in that adoring way that always made her knees buckle and her heart race. “You can do this, El,” he said softly.

She took a deep breath, staring into Mike’s eyes. He stared back. The softness of his gaze was enough to make El believe that maybe she really could do it. She could swim.

She had sworn off coming near water ever again after her final dive in the sense-deprivation kiddie pool all that time ago.

But now she had a boy looking at here with soft eyes and a determined smile, and the idea of disappointing him was almost too much to bear.

“Ok,” she agreed hesitantly.

Mike beamed.

 

 

The water was almost definitely green. And slimy. There was something in it, for certain, and it reminded her of tentacles and monster legs reaching out to grab her.

 “OK, we’re going to go in slow,” Mike spoke gently, her hand firmly clasped in his. He began to descend into the water, inch by inch, until the water brushed his knees. He was sitting on the rock’s edge, his arm was outstretched, still holding onto the hand of Eleven, who was standing upright and hadn’t budged.

“Come on, the water’s nice!” Mike was encouraging, but it was completely a lie. The water was not nice.

El let a toe brush the water’s surface, and had to admit to herself that the cool temperature was a relief from the searing heat of the day.  

Mike smiled reassuringly, their hands still clasped together. “Alright, now if you hold on to me, you’ll be fine. I promise.”

Mike jumped from the rock’s edge, dunked his head under and resurfaced with only his neck above water.

“Come on, El!”

El took a deep breath. Then, without thinking, she leapt forward into the depths of the water.

Mike couldn’t have known. The water of the whole pond was just deep enough to fit his whole body underwater, which in his mind were perfect conditions for learning how to swim. And if she just hung on to him, he would’ve kept her safe.

But Mike had no idea the extent of it.

The feeling of the sudden cold rushing against her skin was eerily familiar to El as her body sunk into the pond. It was just water but it felt thick, heavy, as if pressing on her.

And the darkness. Her eyes closed, she could see nothing but the black. That darkly familiar black.

Memories of tanks of water and suffocating darkness revealed themselves, cackling at her. She gasped, and water flooded into her mouth unexpectedly. Basic human instinct failed her as fear took the wheel, directing her every action.

She screamed.

Mike, terrified, leapt over to her, wrapping his hand around one arm and yanking her up.

She emerged coughing and spitting and sobbing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” was Mike’s hushed mantra as he swam back over to the water’s edge, holding El tightly to him with one arm.

She scrambled out of the water wildly, frantically, only stopping herself when she was sure she was back on dry land. Mike hurried behind her.

Out of the water she sat, hugging her knees, crying.

Mike didn’t say anything as he lowered himself beside her, gingerly encircling her with his arm.

 

 

They sat like that for some time, El unashamedly sobbing herself into exhaustion.

“I’m sorry,” Mike broke the powerful silence between them about fifteen minutes following her final sniffles.  

El’s lashes still clung together with moisture, and Mike couldn’t help but notice the sparkling color of her eyes beneath them. How could she still look _so pretty_?

“It’s OK,” El said, her voice hoarse. She gave him a small smile. “It’s OK.”

Mike looked sheepishly down at his swim trunks, afraid to meet her eyes. “I didn’t know … I didn’t know it was so hard for you.”

A beat.

“Tanks,” El said.

Mike perked up.

“Of water. But there’s a door, and when it closes there’s nothing but black.”

She looked away from him, afraid she might start crying again.

“I can’t see… anything. _Nothing._ And I bang and bang for him to let me out but he… but he doesn’t. He never does.”

Mike frowned. El never spoke about the past in the lab. The extent of her descriptions were “it’s a bad place.” Mike’s entire body felt heavy with guilt as she spoke. He should’ve known. Somehow, he should’ve known.

“I’m sorry, El. I’m so sorry, El. I shouldn’t have taken you out here. I thought…” he shook his head. “It’s stupid.”

“What?” El asked, turning to face him.

“I just thought… I could protect you, for a change.”

El cocked her head.

“You know in the water I can hold you up and stuff…” he trailed off. “It’s stupid.”

“Mike.”

“I’m useless,” he whispered. “I can’t protect you. Definitely not from that. Not from everything that’s happened… not from anything.”

El half-smiled. “You don’t need to protect me,” she said quietly. She reached out her hand and let it rest gently on top of Mike’s. “This is enough.”

Mike stared at their two stacked hands silently.

“I still wish I could kill him, though,” Mike said under his breath.

“Yeah,” El agreed. “Me too.”

A pause. El stared out at the water.

“We’ll try again.”

Mike’s eyebrows furrowed. “We will?”

“Not now,” El rushed. “But again.”

Mike nodded.

“Without you, I could never do it. But with you … I know I can.”


End file.
